God’s Purpose For The Family

Introduction

This morning I want to speak for just a few moments about God in the home. And it’ll be, I’ve got four or five lessons planned on this, and hopefully it won’t feel like a series because we’ll be a little more spaced out over like three or four months. But this one a little bit more introductory. and I’d hope that you would study with me in God’s word this morning. If you’d be opening in your Bibles, Genesis chapter one, we’ll start there in just a few moments. When we talk about God in the home, when we talk about our responsibilities as parents and as spouses and as children in a Christian home. It’s always a challenging thing because we all know that we can do better in those aspects.

It’s challenging to listen to, and it’s challenging to present. The home grows out of God’s very first command to mankind. In Genesis chapter 1, beginning in verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living thing that moves on the earth.

So God creates man and woman. Gives him the command to be fruitful and to multiply, and inherent in that command, the family structure is laid out. And we find that in more detail in chapter 2 in verse 20.

The man gave names to all livestock, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord caused the deep sleep to fall into the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed it up in its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and brought her to the man, and then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1. God's Purpose for the Family Is to Grow His Family

So the structure of man and woman coming together as husband and wife to form one bond, one flesh, one unit, is set up, and they’re commanded to be fruitful and multiply. But why would God tell them to do that? Why was this important? Well, obviously, it’s necessary for the ultimate propagation of man. We’re more than just animals. We have a soul. We’re created in God’s image. We’re to have dominion over the earth. But I think more importantly, it’s because God wants those souls to belong to him. And he set up a very specific way for that to happen. I mean, why would why go through all the trouble to create the earth for man to inhabit and to dwell and to have dominion over it? I mean, God could have just as easily said, you know what?

I think I’m just going to create a whole bunch of beings to be with me in heaven. And of course, he has the angels. But I think he wanted, and this is just me, but I think he wanted someone, he wanted to have children that loved him because they chose to do so. And that’s what this is all about. God’s purpose for the family is to grow his family.

Not just a few, but many. And multiplying children is a gift from God. Psalm chapter 127, verses 3 through 5. In Psalm chapter 127, verses 3 through 5 talks about how important it is and how much of a blessing it is to have many children. Behold, children a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of a womb, of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s used. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Just as parents understand the love that they have for their own children, how wonderful it is to have many children, just ask the Olympic. God wants to have lots of children.

It fills your heart with joy. Unspeakable. Like you’ve never could have imagined before. And so God gives us this command to be fruitful and to multiply. And he gives that command again to Noah and His sons in Genesis chapter 9. He repeats that command. Because every child born is a potential child of God. And we’re told to seek God in Acts chapter 17 and verse 27.

2. Passing On Our Faith From Generation to Generation

You know, our feelings about our own family are stronger than about anyone else.

I think God designed it that way for very specific purpose. He wanted us to care about our family so that it might pass on our faith from generation to generation. And we see that throughout the Old Testament. We see that the home was essential in the promotion and education about God.

Genesis chapter 4 through chapter 6 talks about the descendants of Adam, and in chapter 4 and verse 26, it notes that at this time people began to call on the name of the Lord. How do you think that they knew back then about God, about Jehovah? It was passed down through oral tradition. And we see the stories of the patriarchs of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Of Job in Job chapter 1.

You know, Abraham was to command his children to keep the way of the Lord in Genesis chapter 18 and verse 19. The patriarchs had this responsibility of passing on the faith, the understanding, the knowledge of the one true God before there was this written word that we have today.

They could see God. And you contrast that with Romans chapter 1, where although they could see God, they did not honor him as God. Anyone who looks around can plainly see that there is a creator. Though many people want to deny it because they want to do whatever they want to do.

We have a responsibility to know God and to honor him as God. Failure of families to honor God in their homes results in what we have today of a society of sensuality, of lawlessness. Genesis chapter 1, or chapter 12 and verse 1, God is concerned about family influence. When it came to Abraham. And so he tells him in chapter 12 and verse 1 go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. He tells him to go out, to get away.

That he be the example, that he show them about God.

3. Our Spouses Also Teach Us About God

And I think another way that’s interesting that the family has been set up is that our spouses also teach us about God. The family structure is not just about parents to children and raising children. It’s about husbands and wives helping each other to be more godly as well. When we think about God’s characteristics, what do we tend to think about? And we think about his justice and his vengeance and his wrath, his discipline. And those are more, maybe, so to speak, male type characteristics. And we think about his mercy and his love and his forgiveness, his kindness. And we think of those as maybe being a little bit more feminine type characteristics. And I think it’s interesting that the Bible says that he created male and female in his image.

And when we get married, we understand that what that does for us is it makes us whole. It makes us complete. It gives us that part which we were lacking. And in so doing, when we marry, we become one as God is one. Marriage makes us whole. The part that was missing is completed. Our spouse helps us become the person that we ought to be, and we learn about the characteristics of God from our spouse. We learn and develop those characteristics that we are lacking from the part that makes us whole. God’s aim in the home, his purpose for the family is to teach us about himself. Whether it be through our spouse, through our parents, through our children. His aim is to teach us about him.

4. The Importance of a Godly Education

And so, what is the importance then of a godly education? Well, these were clear commands in the Mosaic Law. They were to ensure that God was not forgotten. If you turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 4. There’s several places throughout Deuteronomy. And remember that this book is Moses’ discourse to the people of Israel before they enter the land of Canaan. And he’s reminding them of all the things that they needed to remember, that need to be important to them as they carried out God’s promise. In chapter 4 and verse 9, it says, Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children’s children.

Well, what things? Moses, what should they be careful not to forget? This is a people who had come up out of Egypt. They were slaves. They’d been delivered by the plagues. They had seen Pharaoh’s army destroyed behind them as they walked across on dry land through the water. This is the people that had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, surviving only by God’s provision. And we’re finally about to enter the land of promise. He’s telling them, don’t forget the things that you and your parents saw.

Continuing on verse 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my word, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while it burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. And then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire, and you heard the sound of the words, but saw no form, and there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform.

That is the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone, and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess. And over in chapter six, he continues this thought, and verse four Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And all these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land, and he swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It was important that they teach these things to the children, that they talk about them as they walk by the way, that they not forget, because it is so easy to forget that it is God who provides, that it is God is the very reason that we are here.

Chapter 11, verse 18. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between their eyes, so they shall be ever before you. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you’re sitting in your house, and when you’re walking by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

They have to be careful. Because if they weren’t careful, they were going to forget about God. It was imperative that they teach their children about him. They talk about him all the time, that they remember that their dependence needed to be upon him. In Psalm chapter 78. We are taught that we need to set our hope upon God.

I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children, but tell them to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise to tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Why did Israel fall away so many times? Why did they fail? Because they didn’t obey this commandment. To remind their children, to teach their children about the things that God had done. They didn’t set their hope on God. And we look in Judges, and we see that cycle of judges that went on generation after generation of failure and then repentance and then deliverance and failure again. And why did that happen? Because in Judges chapter 2, verse 7 through 10, it says that a generation arose after Joshua and after all the elders that outlived him that did not know the Lord.

They failed in keeping that commandment of ensuring their faith passed on to their children. The first generation that saw the faithfulness of God in the wilderness, they were faithful in return to him. But their children wouldn’t be able to see that. And for them, this was a faith that was only one of believing because they saw.

5. The Demand Upon Christians Remains the Same Today

One generation, if God is not in our homes, one generation, and it can be gone. And so the demand upon Christians remains the same today. I want you to consider a few passages of the New Testament with me. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Moses’ commandment is carried out, is continued on here in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 6 by Paul. Father said, bring up their children into the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They need to be taught about God. And children need to obey their parents, honor their father and mother, listen to them when they are taught. Obey them when they are told. And I’m also reminded of Timothy in 2 Timothy, as Paul writes to him there and recalls how his faith was imparted to him. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5. He writes, I’m reminded of your sincere faith. Where did that faith come from?

A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I’m sure dwells in you as well. And over in chapter 3, verses 14 through 17. It continues to write, but as for you, continue in what you have learned. Again, where did he learn that? His grandmother, his mother. And what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it. And how from childhood you’ve been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is read out by God and are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Paul and Lois and Eunice, they had taught Timothy all the things that he needed to know.

And therefore that he might be a competent, thoroughly equipped man of God. If we want our children to be competent and thoroughly equipped to handle the challenges that they are most assuredly going to face, God needs to be in our homes. The home, the family, remains the primary means of promoting God to subsequent generations. God’s aim in educating his people about himself through the vehicle of the home. Is that he might preserve a people for himself? That’s why he made us. And while the specific methodology is not defined about how we go doing that, we need to do whatever works for our family.

6. God Needs to Be in Our Homes

The point is that it needs to be ever before us. We teach our children about everything that’s important in this life. We teach them about a lot of things that maybe even aren’t that important. Should we not also teach them about God? Should not God come first. Before we teach them how to ride a bike or to throw a ball, or to do their math homework. Should we not teach them about the principles of the Bible? No.

We cannot afford in this generation to have ignorant families. And to have ignorant children. And that was a theme that I was noticing as we were in Bible class this morning about religious deception and about the denominational trap is that ignorance. Just kept coming up over and over and over again. That ignorant people. Unstable people twist the scriptures to their own destruction. If we’re not careful, we will raise a generation of ignorant children. Ignorance of the Bible. Ignorant to God’s commands. It used to be, I think, that children were taught to know, to read through everything. I mean, the Bible stories were just ingrained in us as children. And now I don’t I don’t know. I hate it, but Bible bowl at camp. It’s one of the most depressing periods of the day.

Because they asked questions that these kids should know and they don’t. And it’s scary. Where is God in these homes? We cannot be afford to be ignorant. The family teaches us about a relationship with God. It teaches us about the seriousness of our obligation to Him. And if we don’t teach them, where else will they learn? They will learn from the people around them at school and in their jobs as they grow up. They’re educators in their colleges. Their faith needs to be grounded. God needs to be in our homes. We need to learn from the lessons of the past, learn from the lessons of Israel that failed to follow the commands to keep him ever before them. Parents need to appreciate the responsibility that is laid upon them to train their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

God needs to be in the center of our homes. He needs to be in our cars, in our at our dinner tables, at our bedsides, in our conversations.

He needs to be in our homes. Is he?

Not just on the corner, not just on the dusty Bible on the bookshelf. But at the very center of the room, at the center of our lives and of our families. Remember, it takes just one generation of not teaching them for families to fall away.

Conclusion

He’s a first generation, if you will, Christian. And I got to thinking I’m fourth generation. And how awesome that is. But how quickly that can fade away. And the awesome responsibility that I have to ensure that my children are fifth generation. And that their faith is their own. So that their children are sixth and seventh and so on. That is the purpose for which God made us. He made us to be fruitful and multiply in order that he might have children that belong to him in heaven. And it is our serious responsibility to make that happen. So this morning, if you’re here and you want that for your family, I would admonish you to set the example for them, that God be at the center of your heart and of your home.

And if you’ve never put on Jesus Christ in baptism, become a Christian. If you’re concerned about the eternal destination of your family, I would advise you to do that as well. We have water here, we can baptize you. If you need any prayers of the congregation whatsoever, I want you to come forward while we stand with some.